Becker’s Healthcare Podcast

Kate FitzPatrick, Chief Nurse Executive at Jefferson Health and seasoned nursing leader, discusses integrating nursing teams across a 33-hospital system. She talks about strengthening community partnerships and educating nurses on insurance. She explains the Nursing SEAL team approach, supporting early-career nurses, closing care transition gaps, and redesigning workforce with tech-enabled, flexible roles.

Dr. Jay L. Robinson III, Senior VP and Area Manager at Kaiser Permanente, is a clinician-leader focused on workforce culture and AI-driven innovation. He discusses strengthening culture through rounding and coaching. He highlights AI adoption, patient experience as an operating model, and new care pathways that reduce hospitalizations and expand community-based care.

Krista Nelson, CEO of Optum Health and longtime UnitedHealth leader, discusses a shift to focused, integrated value-based care anchored in primary care. She highlights clinician support, tech like AI to cut admin work, Medicare Advantage funding concerns, and the need for cross-sector partnerships to scale better care.

Megan Eubanks, Senior Director of Perioperative and Procedural Services at The University of Kansas Health System, leads OR capacity and data-driven strategy. She discusses using AI and advanced analytics to uncover hidden capacity and guide real-time decisions. Topics include predictive tools vs raw EHR data, transparency and governance to boost throughput, and tactics that expanded surgical access and utilization.

A fast look at recent hospital sales and strategic divestitures reshaping health system footprints. Discussion of why transactions reveal financial stress and how systems refocus on core strengths. Coverage of nontraditional deals like a major telehealth acquisition. Concerns about behavioral health capacity and efforts to expand access through outpatient and tech-enabled services.

Sharmila Makhija, founding dean and CEO of the Alice L. Walton School of Medicine, is redesigning medical training to blend clinical skills with the arts, humanities, and whole-health care. She discusses shortening training, tackling rural physician shortages with targeted recruitment and tuition incentives, and building a wellness-focused campus culture that prepares future clinicians for a changing healthcare landscape.

Jose Azar, MD, a quality and clinical leader at Hackensack Meridian Health and hematology/oncology professor, discusses launching the Agile Institute to speed evidence-based care. He explores culture change and physician-led collaboratives. Topics include rapid rollouts like geriatric surgery verification, pathways to CMS five-star performance, and AI-driven strategies to improve equitable access.

Dr. Dustin M. Riccio, President and CEO of St. Joseph's Health System, is a Jersey-born physician-executive driving strategic growth and cultural renewal. He discusses a year of listening that shaped a plan focused on primary care and ambulatory expansion. He also covers quality wins, amplifying the system’s voice to communities and payers, and the challenge of sustaining momentum amid rapid industry change.

Ada Demir, Vice President of Enterprise Support Services and Supply Chain at Dartmouth Health, is a supply chain leader focused on transformation and continuity planning. She discusses staying within budget amid rising costs. She highlights why supply chain needs C-suite alignment. She covers vendor diversification, talent strategies, and practical continuity planning.

Rapid growth in nurse and advanced practitioner training and the tradeoffs of faster pipelines. Expanding administrative and clinical AI use cases from ambient listening to predictive analytics. Rising specialist shortages and the long, costly path of medical education. Hospital financial strain and the fragile rural care market. Emerging tiers of care and the equity risks they create.